"y'all act like you never seen a white person before"

HELLO FROM NICARAGUA. i am here. and it is UNREAL. holy crap. but let's start from where we left off last time.

soooooo before i left the CCM i had to take a Spanish language test.. got a 68 %.. in the language I'm supposed to be fluent in. so that was uplifting. saddest thing is not very many people did better than that.. then we had a workshop on how not to die in the field basically. literally at one point in my notes i wrote "If I Get Kidnapped:" so let's hope i don't need to refer to those one day. my last deportes. that happened. everyone knows how obsessed i am with deportes. it will be sorely missed in the field. hmm what else.. OH i had to sing in church on my last Sunday there.. with my friend Hermana Flynn. we got to sing in English praise the heavens haha. we sang "Every Breath" and all the Latinos told us we sounded like angels.. but I'm fairly positive that's only because most of them are tone deaf.. haha joking. (but for real on the tone deaf part). haha i think it went pretty well:) saying goodbye to everyone in the MTC was awful because they were like my family. but it only meant that i was finally going to NICARAGUA! whooooo!

so. wake up on Tuesday morning at 2 am. go to the airport. get on a plane at 7 am. and then one hour later. I LANDED IN MANAGUA. nuts. (shout out to One Direction for being the first and LAST song i heard in Guatemala.) 

Nicaragua. is out of control gorgeous. i feel like I'm in the lion king.. yes i know the lion king is in Africa. BUT ITS SO GREEN and beautiful. i heard horror stories about people getting to the mission and having to go out and work that same day.. but we get to Managua.. have some meetings.. eat.. then go to president's house. where his wife takes us all to couches and tells us to take a nap.. BEST DAY EVER. i took a three hour nap of HEAVEN. the next day, we went to the change meeting where i met my new companion.... drum roll...

SHE IS MY ANGEL. she is like 5'1.. 26 years old.. from Costa Rica.. and is fluent in SPANISH AND ENGLISH. I'm probably the luckiest person on earth. she is THE GREATEST. i love her. her name is Hermana Chinchilla.. except you say it chin-chee-uh. not like the animal.. haha. some guys in our zone call her chincheezus.. haha she's that great. Our zone is called Matagalpa. it's in the mountains.. so again.. SO LUCKY. it's the coolest place in Nicaragua.. but still hot sometimes haha. and it's straight up legit IN THE MOUNTAINS. like, it's like hiking the Y nine times a day getting from house to house.. but it's gorgeous and the people are the nicest, most humble people i have EVER met. ALSO. Hermana McDonald is in my zone! so i get to see her like twice a week! best ever. 

so. the poop story that Alexa and Bailey's aunt Kathy told me? REAL LIFE. there's poop everywhere. but I'm pretty sure it's from the stray dogs.. haha. and Kathy's nephew who told that story is in my zone.. sitting like 8 feet away from me as a type.. haha such a small world. so Lex and Bai, tell Kathy haha.

I HAVE A SHOWER MOM. ahhhh. I'll send pictures of my baby house if i can figure it out.. but uhm yeah heated water doesn't exist here.. so my showers are freezing. but it's okay because I'm always sweating to death anyways. 

let's talk about the caption to my email.. "y'all act like you never seen a white person before". real. these people stare at me like all day everyday. haha and they point at me and say gringa or chelita haha. or if they know English.. they get in front of me, or stop their cars.. or look out their windows and say "hello" "how are YOU" "i love you princess" "good night" haha and when i reply they laugh their heads off. i must be hilarious. and the other day, this drunk guy starts yelling at me in Spanish.. and Hermana Chinchilla said that he was saying i need to pray for him so that he can win my heart.. hahahaha. 

food. is weird kinda. ALWAYS RICE. haha but I've learned to love it already. so for breakfast.. i usually just eat my off brand frosted flakes or some mango off the street (my FAVORITE and it's only 5 cords which is like 20 cents..) then lunch. we have a cita.. which is an appointment with a member who makes us food everyday. so she is the president's wife and is so sweet. and her kids are THE CUTEST! and love me. and love to help me with my Spanish which is GREAT haha. and i taught them the "girl girl girl" hand thingy.. SO FUNNY because they cant say girl. haha anyways lunch. usually some kind of chicken, gallo pinto (rice and beans mixed together) some vegetable (weird ones I've never seen) and this drink thing called a fresca that's different every day. i never know what it's made out of but i drink it because its cold and I'm ALWAYS sweating. haha mom, I've given up on drinking pure water.. sorry.. haha i just drink it from the tap.. and im not sick or dead so don't worry! i must be immune. it tastes kinda funny.. and my CCM president's wife would kill me if she knew but YOLO. i cant afford to buy pure water for 18 months. also, i don't eat dinner.. usually just ritz crackers for dinner.. haha so my skirts are already getting a little big from hiking all day and not eating much.. but it's whatever haha.

these tiny people are my heroes. (legit they are all tiny. they call me la alta.. haha and no one believes I'm 19 because I'm so tall.. haha then i tell them my 15 year old brother is taller than me and they die haha) their houses are made of tin.. their floors are dirt.. they don't have mattresses or bathrooms.. some of them cant read.. BUT THEY ARE SO HAPPY. and KIND. i love them. they are already changing my life.

hardest thing ever? ok. so we contact in the streets all the time and people give us their addresses to visit them.. and this is legit the addresses. "por aqui.. uno y medio cuadra abajo, por alli." which legit means, "through there, one and half a blocks down, and through there." WHAT? like they live on mountains that i have to hike and they want me to know what that means? nope. half the time we cant find their houses. but here's a crazy cool story. so we're looking for a house of people we contacted and we CANNOT find it. then we see this little girl Annabelle who is obsessed with me and loves to hold my hand.. so she's walking with us and tells us that she thinks she knows where these people live (she's like 4.. haha) then she's like.. wait you should go to this house.. so we go up to their door.. and these people aren't the people we were looking for but they invite us in and pull up chairs for us immediately.. and we teach them the first lesson.. when i taught about Joseph Smith the dad started crying and IT WAS UNREAL. i taught someone in Spanish and they understood and felt the spirit.. WHAT. haha it was the greatest.. and they said they want to be baptized.. AJKSKJASHDFAKJS. crazy. what is my life. I LOVE THIS.

okay sorry for the longest email of my life.. SO MUCH HAPPENS HERE. haha i LOVE IT! know that I'm so happy, and it's hard.. but it's supposed to be:) i pray for all of you always! the church is true, the book is blue. haha

con mucho amor, 

Hermana Whit (nobody here can say wheat.. so i now go by hermana whit)